A. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of hairdressing, and more particularly to the art of permanent waving hair.
B. Description of Related Art
In contemporary hair salons, hair is given a permanent wave by first placing the ends of clean, wet hair between a pair of end papers, then wrapping the hair and end papers around a rod, applying a permanent waving solution to the hair while the hair is in a rolled condition, and finally letting the hair process until the hair has broken down sufficiently to accept a neutralizing solution that locks the new curl pattern into the hair.
A widely recognized, but heretofore unsolved problem in the art, has been finding a way to keep permanent rods from falling out of the hair in certain recurring situations, such as when very short (under 3 inches in length) coarse hair is being rolled, and when a relatively large rod is being used for short hair. In these circumstances, the permanent rod slides out of the roll of hair very easily due to the weight of the rod and the hair, due to forces applied to the hair and rod when the hair is being rinsed, and due to jostling of the hair and rollers when the client moves his or her head.
VELCRO.TM.-type materials have been used in the prior art to facilitate gripping of hair, but its applicability to the above-described problem has not been recognized. One example is VELCRO.TM.-type rollers, which comprise a hollow cylindrical body with hook projections on the exterior surface thereof. These rollers have been used for setting hair, but are generally not used for perming hair. Should such rollers be used with end papers for perming hair, the end papers would prevent the hair encased therebetween from being gripped by the hook projections. Hence, these rollers provide no enhanced gripping for perming hair when used with end papers. However, the present invention can be used with the VELCRO.TM. rollers to provide improved gripping of the hair in the permanent waving process.
VELCRO.TM.-type gripping strips are found on the prior art CLEAR LITES plastic highlighting transparencies from Matrix Essentials, Inc. These plastic sheets are used in the coloring and highlighting of hair. The CLEAR LITES have a strip of hook projections adjacent to the top edge of the plastic sheet. In use, the hook projections are pressed into the scalp at the hair parting, for the purpose of making a seal between the plastic sheet and the scalp to thereby prevent color seepage onto the hair which is not to be colored. The CLEAR LITES product is useless for permanent waving since the slippery plastic sheets would not hold hair during the winding of the hair on a rod. Moreover, the plastic is not porous and is too thick and bulky to be wound around a rod.
The above described prior art techniques are ineffective for solving the permanent waving problem of gripping short hair on a permanent waving rod. Heretofore, the perming of short, coarse hair, or using large permanent rods on short hair, has been problematical. The present invention solves this problem in an unexpected way and permits larger rods than could otherwise be used in straight, coarse hair. The invention satisfies a long felt need in the art, and solves a problem that others have been unsuccessful in solving. In the past, the perming of short hair has been accomplished only by using very small-diameter rods, resulting in overly-curly hair.